Leyla Zana (born 3 May 1961) is a Kurdish politician in Turkey. She was imprisoned for ten years for her political activism, which was deemed by the Turkish courts to be against the unity of the country. She was awarded the 1995 Sakharov Prize by the European Parliament but was unable to collect it until her release in 2004. She was also awarded the Rafto Prize in 1994 after being recognized by the Rafto Foundation for being incarcerated for her peaceful struggle for the human rights of the Kurdish people in Turkey and the neighbouring countries.
Early life
She was born to a Kurdish family in May 1961, in Silvan, Diyarbakır Province, in the southeast of Turkey. When she was 14 years old, she was married to her cousin Mehdi Zana, who became the mayor of Diyarbakır three years later in 1977 until the military coup d'état and a political prisoner after it.
Political career
After the arrest of her husband Mehdi Zana, she and other relatives of prisoners tried to raise awareness for the prisoners' situation. She created a scandal when she spoke Kurdish on the floor of the parliament after being sworn in, even though it was known to be illegal. The Kurdish language, even when spoken in private, had been illegal for years in Turkey. Only in that year, 1991, was the Kurdish language finally legalized, though speaking Kurdish remained illegal in public spaces, as Zana was sworn in. Her remarks ended,
Only the final sentence of the oath was spoken in Kurdish: "I take this oath for the brotherhood between the Turkish people and the Kurdish people."
Although Zana's parliamentary immunity protected her, after she joined the Democracy Party, that party was banned and her immunity was stripped. After the MP Mehmet Sincar was assassinated during an investigation into unsolved political murders in 1993, she was one of the MPs who visited the relatives of Sincar in Kiziltepe. During her stay in Kiziltepe, a bomb exploded in the house she was staying, which left her unharmed, but wounded five women. The treason charges were not put before the court, and Zana denied PKK affiliation; but with the prosecution relying on witness statements allegedly obtained under torture, Zana and the others were sentenced to 15 years in prison. At her sentencing, she asserted,